Sintered porous medium heat sink for cooling of high-power mini-devices

Heat transfer and pressure drop in a rectangular channel with sintered porous inserts, made of stainless steel of different porosity, were investigated experimentally. Heat flux up to 6 MW/m2 was removed experimentally by using porous samples with porosity 32% and average pore diameter 20 μm. Under this experimental condition, the difference between the temperatures of the wall and the bulk water did not exceed of 55 K with a pressure drop of 4.5 bars. The generalization of data on heat transfer in a low porosity sintered stainless steel media, based on the permeability as scale of length and the effective thermal conductivity, was considered. An estimate of a heat sink efficiency using sintered porous material for cooling high-power mini-devices and comparing it with one for such modern porous media as compressed aluminum foams was done.